monthly random

 Aggregator host: a tale of what's wrong with the internet.

(actually it's a mysterious service with no company claiming credit.)

Random canned responses exist next to a couple questions about it.

No one knows or cares.

Gateway Aggregation pattern - Cloud Design Patterns | Microsoft Docs

These double-spaced lines look like weighty statements, not fleeting thoughts.
I would condense it, but then it's a little hard-to-read.

I'm gonna guess it "Aggregates" information and sticks it somewhere, to be sent to Microsoft in a log file. But that is truly guessing.

But that's not what got me off my ass to write this, it was an email that struck me as odd:

If you don't go Monday, and try to be first,

Then.....

The waiting room'll be crowded Tuesday-Morning, won't it? Which sort of nullifies whatever they're trying to accomplish, right?

And if you're shy, shouldn't you read between the lines and say,

 "Since everyone is going Tuesday Morning, I'll go Monday," to avoid the crowd.

OK I'm lost, it's the first-ever time I've ever heard that sage wisdom.

Is it a superstition?

If masks are so helpful, and Republicans don't like masks, shouldn't Republicans get sicker?

No, I figured, they're in their Lexus or Ford F250, while poor minorities are on Buses.

I'm generalizing but so are they.

Rich minorities (I dislike that word, "Minorities") exist, and you could write some bombastic blog about how they drive a huge gargantuan part of the world's economy (and keep condo prices high), but I drifted into a different, more topical subject, hacking.

It's a booming business, buy stuff to protect against hackers, hack stuff to...(uh), it's circular.

If I told you not to use programs that give computers viruses, and you did because you're contrarian, and got others sick, shouldn't you share some blame?

US cyber-attack: Cybersecurity agency warns suspected Russian hacking campaign broader than previously believed - CNNPolitics

"IT program" so blame IT.

I don't know. "CNNPolitics," Hackers in condos making tons of money monitoring other hackers. No they didn't say that, I did, sorry for being unclear. The subject is political, for whatever reason, and I get lost thinking of all the permutations. If hacking is so real, so dangerous, why are those computers online? Why do they use the regular internet?

The toilet-town internet where Aggregate-hosts wander to and fro, seeking what they can devour

(The reuters article mentioned "the cloud", the Bates-Motel of the internet, but you'd never believe me, something like this has to happen. Why all the emphasis on One-drive and whatever "Azure" is?

Listen, I don't wanna tell you what to do (wear better masks, avoid Wifi when possible, never use the cloud, erase your shopping-service payment method (especially now, at christmas,)

You've got enough sense to take care of yourselves.

Don't you?

"Microsoft also had its own products leveraged to attack victims, said people familiar with the matter. The U.S. National Security Agency issued a rare “cybersecurity advisory” Thursday detailing how certain Microsoft Azure cloud services may have been compromised by hackers and directing users to lock down their systems."
-Microsoft says it found malicious software in its systems | Reuters

Everyone I freaking know have viruses, and I have programs that aren't supposed to be viruses, monitoring my documents and my pictures (and my music.)

Pot vs kettle.

*why* hack? what's the payoff, a featured spot in Wikileaks?

If you download mods (I'm editing these next couple of sentences in, excuse the rambling)

You sort of hope the game, the modders and the website holding the mods aren't evil or on some mission from god. Is that being too naïve, too optimistic? What about "Trainers", those self updating programs that need to run when playing some games?

What about "Steam", what about "Origin"? Most games these days on PC's require some host-program running in the background, aggregating info about who is playing, what is being played. The more subtle stuff they should keep their collective noses out of, you just have to trust. They force you to agree that they'll know your system-hardware...

Cybersecurity experts 'freaking out' about SolarWinds cyberattack - Business Insider

Sales-pitch for "Lifelock" or real-life threat? If it's real, at least they know (now) it's there.

If it's salesmanship, nevermind (but how would people know that aren't working for Trump/Putin?)